thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid. >> bret: this is "the fox report." tonight, a bad day in the market. what made it one of the worst days of this year. plus, the debates are over, now, the final push begins. >> two weeks from today, americans in all 50 states will step into the voting booth. >> paul ryan and i are going to work nonstop crisscrossing the country to get people to get energized and to get out and vote. bret wreath now, americans have just days to decide in an election that will shake the course of our country. hundreds sick and some dead after a massive outbreak of meningitis. now, newly released records raise questions about the

pharmacy at the center of it all. tonight, did regulators cut this company a break. plus, a little girl home alone when criminals break into her house. >> are they on the front porch now. >> no. they are in my house. i don't know how they got. in i locked the door. >> tonight, her desperate call for help and what happened when deputies arrived. >> shepard: but first from fox this tuesday night, two weeks until election day, and tonight the candidates are storming the battleground states and making their closing arguments to the voters. a new poll shows governor mitt romney jumping aed ahead of president obama for the first time since the conventions. the governor halls a new 1 point lead in the new "the washington post" tracking poll that's a sta tis it particular call tie. itunder scores president obama's challenge. it's the lowest approval rating for the president since late last month. and that survey was done before the final debate.

today, the president and governor romney picked um where they left off last night. the president says americans cannot trust the governor because he is, quote: all over the map. >> we're accustomed to seeing politicians change their positions from like four years ago. we are not accustomed to seeing politicians change their position from four days ago. >> attacks on me are not an agenda. the president -- we have gone through four debates now. we have gone through four debates with the vice presidential debate and my debates and we haven't heard an agenda from the president. that's why his campaign is taking on water and our campaign is suppose full speed ahead. >> shepard: now the president is handing out a new booklet. a booklet in which he explains his plan for jobs and middle class security. and that tees up team fox coverage. carl cammeron is in del ray beach, florida tonight dined of a dark night.

ed henry is live with us from dayton, ohio. what is in this new booklet? >> shep, it's interesting. i have got it right here. it's 20 pages, as you say a plan for jobs and middle class security. the obama camp says they are going to it slide it under 3 million doors among undecided voters, key battle grounds like here in ohio as well as florida. they have been on defense over that because of the fact that you have republicans, like mitt romney, paul ryan have been hitting him saying he hasn't laid any specifics about a second term agenda. so the president puts out this pamphlet today he has a 60 second ad he looks straight into the camera and says this is what i will do in a second term. he talks about creating jobs. he talks about clean energy. he also talks about cutting the deficit by raising taxes on the rich. this is all stuff he has talked about on the trail. that's why republicans immediately said it's not really new ideas. it's just recycled, shep. >> shepard: analysts say the president is sharpening his attack on governor romney in a more personal way. >> he is. you will remember last week he was talking about romnesia,

this affliction where someone keeps flip flopping and they forget what their previous positions. were president ramped that up a little bit today at a rally in florida before he came here to ohio and was talking about mitt romney having romnesia in his words on foreign policy in that debate last night. and then he did get personal by saying you flatly cannot trust mitt romney. take a listen. >> in a speech, he is really excellent at listing all the things that are wrong. he can just go over it verbatim, just boom, booment, boom, boom. power point presentation. [ laughter ] but, you know what? that's not leadership that you can trust. >> now, the obama camp feels good about that debate last night. vice president biden was at this rally in dayton a short while ago with the president and said it was not even close. the president won hands down. i also spoke to the president's senior advisor david plouffe. a couple weeks ago they were very confident about the race. today he still expresses confidence but says look we will know two weeks from now.

one of us is right. one of us is wrong. they too not have bravado anymore. >> shepard: the ohio secretary of state says more than 800,000 people have already voted either in person or by mail. so last night's debate was obviously too late for them. but among uncommitted voters, 53% say the president won the night according to a cbs news poll. 24 said it was a tie. 23 percent said governor romney won. that was one of those snap polls. and both men apparently won over some of those undecides as well. the president gained more than 20 points. governor romney picked up a dozen according to that same survey. our own pollsters point out that these are initial reactions that can obviously change over time. of course, there is not much time left. team fox coverage continues as i mentioned carl cammeron in del ray beach tonight. governor romney says he is happy about how he perfoed in the debates. >> he recognizes that some of

those snap polls didn't show him as the winner. but the romney campaign is very upbeat about all of this. they go back a montd ago when mr. romney was down in the polls and a lot of folks thought that the debates were essentially going to be a knockout blow for the former massachusetts governor. now fast forward the debates are over and they don't think last night changed the trajectory which has shown serious momentum for the romney campaign. even some acknowledged on the democratic side. mr. romney sees it as a triumph that he is past the threshold test whether or not he can be commander and chief hold his own with the president and lead the world. he made that point pretty obviously when he got today to nevada. his first part of the barn dorm swing round out the last two weeks. watch. >> these debates have super charged our campaign. there is no question about it we are seeing more and more enthusiasm more and more support. we are going to make sure that these campaigns, that the message of these debates, these messages keep going across the country. >> for all of the excitement, for all of the attention that the debates have gotten, for

all the massive audiences that actually came out, the needle has not moved very much in these polls there has been a shift essentially from the margins where obama was leading and romney was trailing to a reversal now. next two weeks no, more debates, which means the ground game becomes critically important, shep. both of them have lots of money to spend but not lots of time to spend it left. >> shepard: what do we know about governor romney's plan there carl. >> he is starting thought nevada where there is ads going. five states the romney campaign is going to be concentrating on the last two weeks. same five states obama is going to be concentrating on. florida and ohio. ohio is everybody's most coveted tossup state. virginia and colorado right there in the margin of error. in all almost cases. iowa is turning out to be a huge swing state. romney will visit all of those states in the next five days. there is also a great deal of attention to being played to both new hampshire and wisconsin. not as much, it's principally five states that will decide

all of this, both candidates are likely to be bumping into one another or their volunteers in every one of those states in the next five days, shep. >> del ray beach, carl, it's good to see you. lots more politics ahead. first a very tough day for the dow as stocks took the deepest dive since the month of june. look at this. weak earnings reports from major companies sent the markets falling. can you see the sharp plunge in the morning there. investors recovered some of their losses earlier. by the end down a big way. nasdaq off 21. gerri willis is in new york in her studios. this was the dow's lowest close in like seven weeks? >> no kidding. officially a yucky day in the markets. all 10 s&p finished in the red. they were negative. what was driving this as you said earnings not good. xerox, dupont, 3 m. good companies, bad results. this even bled over into commodity its. oil was down.

even apple shares were down. let me tell you it could have been better. >> shepard: relatively speaking positive news from facebook. >> we have been waiting for good news out of facebook. government it today. earnings lost but revenue went up. why? well, mainly because of advertising revenues up 36%. this is because they are able to finally actually bring up their mobile advertising. that's something that everybody has been waiting for them to do. very good news for facebook. we have to wait and see. they also got their monthly user base to increase 26%. people watch that metric as well. it's really about are they selling advertising on mobile phones. and, yes, they can say finally now they are, shep? >> shepard: all right, gerri. you mentioned apple stock took a dive today despite the debuting of ipad mini. shares dropped more than 3% on this session alone to close at 613 bucks. the company's new smaller and cheaper ipad is much more expensive than rival tablets and investors said they were disappointed in apple for that reason. the mini starts at 329 bucks.

similar size tablets do run cheaper like amazon's kindle fire runs at 160. while the barnes & noble nook hd and the google nexus 7 both start at about 200 bucks. word of some red flags at the company where investigators say america's meningitis outbreak began. coming up, reports of rules broken and punishments dodged. plus an incident at a u.s. naval base ends with an officer firing a shot and a suspect on the run. serious news there and much more politics ahead from the journalists of fox news on this tuesday fox report. 14 days and counting. where others fail, droid powers through.

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and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. >> shepard: state officials in massachusetts are raising major red flags about cleanliness at that pharmaceutical company that' deadly meningitis outbreak. they found visible black specs of fungus from certain medications from that company. according to their preliminary

investigation, the company sent out drugs before ensuring they were actually sterile. what's more newly released state records show that inspectors warned about contamination records for years before the meningitis outbreak. for whatever reason they chose not to penalize the pharmacy with any tough fines. jonathan serrie is in our atlanta newsroom tonight. atlanta home to the cbc. i understand this company is responding jonathan. >> they are indeed responding. the necc hats always provided the massachusetts board of pharmacy full and complete access to its facility and its records. in a written statement tonight, paul says based on that history, it is hard to imagine that the board has not been be fully apprised of both the manner and scale of the company's operations. the state pharmacy board there in massachusetts is moving to permanently revoke the licenses, not only of necc but

also its three principle pharmacists, shep? >> shepard: incredible outbreak and deadly. what are they doing to keep this from happening again? >> at the state level, massachusetts has announced increased regulation of these compounding pharmacies. there are 25 of them in that state. the increased regulation will include surprise inspections. in fact, the first such inspection was carried out earlier today. a supreme court ruling found that past efforts by the fda to regulate these pharmacies at the federal level were overreaching. but with this latest outbreak claiming at least 23 lives nationwide, there are renewed calls in washington for increased oversight although advocates for the pharmacies warn you need to strike a balance. they argue that too much red tape could potentially prevent these pharmacies from getting life-saving medicines into the into the hands of patients who need them the most, shep?

>> shepard: jonathan sear i didn't in atlanta. big news for planned parenthood tonight. of the state of indiana cannot cut off medicaid funding for planned parenthood. that's the ruling from a federal court. goes on to indiana. this could effect other states as well. supporters say indiana's law will keep tax dollars going to clinics that perform abortions. opponents argue it will also keep thousands from getting many other needed services. indiana wants attorney general says he is debating his next move. more than a dozen states have taken steps to cut funding for planned parenthood in the last few years. a security officer fired a shot at a car just outside the walter reed national medical center in maryland. according to companies, the driver rammed her car into another vehicle. then tried to back into that security officer. earlier in the day, the cops say they spotted the car going 90 miles per hour down i-66 in v.a. and the woman was apparently biting into a bar of soap.

she is now under arrest but does not face any charges. cops say they never actually made it on to the base. well, a deadly shark attack, a stone's throw from a u.s. air force base and the victim's friend reportedly saw it all map happen. we have the details on that coming. tornado touches down in a state where twisters are pretty rare it may not be the only one. it's all ahead as fox reports live tonight. seems they haven't been moving much lately.

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>> shepard: word tonight of a rare shark attack off the coast of california and this one was deadly. officials say the victim was a surfer and that his friend witnessed the whole thing. it happened at a beach off vandenburg air force base about 160 miles north of lang. the last known deadly shark attack in the united states was two years ago around the very same spot. and in that case the animal

literally took a bite out of the victim's boogie board. adam housley live in our west coast news hub. what else do we know about this latest attack, adam. >> yes, shepard. almost two years ago to the day in this same spot we have been told there have been a number of warnings but the out in the area over the last few months. there have been shark sightings as far as south as santa barbara an hour drive south of where this attack took place. we're told it happened at surf beach off the coast of california. a 38-year-old man was surfing with his buddy. his buddy saw him get attacked by a shark and pulled under. he swam to him, took him ashore. performed cpr. by the time the authorities got there he basically pled to death. the surf board shows signs of shark bites as well as they closed the beach in this area pending this investigation, shepard. >> shepard: we t. seems we hear a lot about shark attacks but they are really quiet rare, aren't they. >> some people blame jaws. we have done this story about sharks and deadliness of them.

very very rare. in the state only 29 shark attacks. in the u.s. 75 worldwide. no fatalities last year. only 12 around the globe. you have a one in 11 million chance of being attacked by shark. 1 in 245 million of being killed by a shark. and of the 500 shark species only about 12 are dangerous, shepard, and really three of those white, bull sharks and tiger sharks are responsible for the majority of all attacks. it's very rare, shepard. >> shepard: adam housley in l.a. adam, thanks. weather alert now. tornado touching down in northern california. two other funnel clouds near sacramento. no word of anybody hurt. the twister did do some damage. >> we actually did see the tornado. we actually saw their barn just get dismantled right in front of our eyes. >> our barn got thrown 200 feet in the air and right now it's sitting on its roof. it's completely upsides down. >> the same storm dumping up to 2 feet of snow in spatters of the syria, nevada.

officials say some local ski areas or officials at some local ski areas say they may open earlier than usual if the snow keeps falling. that could be good news. margie is with us from i-the in new jersey wwor. audrey, is this kind of weather unusual for this time of year? >> good evening, shep. that show is also going to benefit the water supply across northern california. early snow is some good news. it is earlier than usual for the season though. a storm system sitting in the gulf of alaska kind of stalled there. second day yesterday that is what produced the mountain snow. also spawned tornadoes which are not unusual for the valley of california. last may we had a couple of tornadoes that came through that damaged a couple of the crops. we have tropical storm sandy that's sitting out in the caribbean. as of the latest advisory that came out about 5:00 eastern standard time the track is taking it northward. going to be making landfall in jamaica tomorrow. it will increase to a category

1 hurricane at that time. then as we get into thursday, it's going to cross over haiti and cuba and bring flooding rains to that nation. and over the bahamas on friday, also sit just offshore of southern florida by then as well bringing tropical storm force winds to areas like fort lauderdale and miami. then the hurricane center currently has it on a track that's going to take it tout to sea as it goes into sunday and monday. we are watching it closely to see exactly what it will do. shep, over to you. >> shepard: headed right toward us in the northeast. we will see. hopefully the hurricane center is right, audrey. 10 trucks in a pileup north of los angeles this morning. california highway patrol officer reports heavy rains may have caused or at least played a big part. they say it all started when a dump truck spun out by a bypass tunnel. that caused 18-wheeler to jackknife and away it went. three big rigs slammed into the wreckage. five more 18 wheelers crashed 18 minutes later. the traffic just piled up. would you look at this? firefighters spent hours removing one driver from a demolished rig.

patrol officers say he went to the hospital with injuries that are not life threatening. the violence in syria certain solid and it's spilling over the border. threatening other countries, including now, u.s. allies. plus the feds are predicting the united states could soon be the top oil producer in the world again. we'll tell you how soon and why coming up as we approach the bottom of the hour and the top of the news as fox reports live tonight. bayer? this isn't just a headache. trust me, this is new bayer migraine. [ male announcer ] it's the power of aspirin plus more in a triple action formula to relieve your tough migraines. new bayer migraine formula. for a golf getaway. double miles you can actually use...

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>> shepard: that russian rocket lifting off today taking one american and two russians to the international space station for a mission to last five months. they will will join three other astronauts on the international space station. in first week the crew is scheduled to face the heaviest work load in the station's 12 year history including spacewalk repairs and spending -- sending a cargo capsule back to earth. of course, nasa retired shuttle fleet last year and now it relies on the russian space agency to take astronauts to the iss. working with private companies to bring launches back to the united states. it's the bottom of the hour. time for the top of the news. one of the largest oil producers on the planet. now threatening to entirely

stop its exports. the ripple effects from such a move could hit us here in the united states and hard. iran's oil minister said today that if the west tightens economic punishes any further iran will stop exporting droil many nations. some saying a cut off would amount to economic suicide for iran. world powers say those penalties are meant to curb iran's nuclear program which the rogue nation claims is for peaceful purposes only. peter barnes reporting for us tonight from d.c. how big a move could this make on our economy, peter? >> well, it could threaten the economic growth again, shep. at the beginning of this year, like now, iran was making similar threats about oil supplies. that sent the price of crude soaring to nearly $110 a barrel stayed above 11 bucks for 11 straight weeks. the price of gas as you recall hit nearly $4 a gallon in spring. u.s. economic growth slowed

and so did job creation. but, oil traders are now as worried about iran this time around. in fact, oil prices keep dropping down nearly $2 a barrel today. new signs of slower economic growth globally. lower oil demand and higher supplies from saudi arabia, libya, and even the u.s. are countering fears of reduced shipments by iran, shep. >> shepard: thankfully, gas prices have been taking a dive over the past couple of weeks, too. >> that's right. the summer driving season is over by a month or so. and recent pipeline and refinery problems have been fixed, helping to ease gas prices. they fell 12 and a half cents to $3.65 a gallon in the last week alone. the biggest weekly drop since 2008. >> we expect the national average, which today is at $3.65 to be between $3.40 and $3.50 by elections day. and by thanksgiving, between $3.25 and $3.40. and perhaps even lower by the

end of the year. somewhere between $3.10 and 3.40 cents. >> and that, of course, could make up a lot cheaper to go over the river and through the wood this holiday season. shepard? >> peter barnes in washington. peter, the united states could soon become the world's top producer of oil and liquid hydrocarbon which include biofuels like ethanol. that's the prediction from city bank, saudi arabia ranks number one. our oil production could become close in the next year. analysts credit high technology and higher global demand for oil. this chart shows the rise in u.s. production of crude over the past five years. city bank predicts it will continue to sore over the next decade turning north america into quote the new middle east. syria is bleeding into other countries now. media outlet in turkey reported that antiaircraft

shell had come screaming over the syrian border and into a turkish health center. no reports of any injuries yet. in the last few days we have also seen people in lebanon get caught up in syria's civil war. this latest incident just one more signal to a detier yalgt situation in a very dangerous region. "the fox report's" correspondent jonathan hunt is on set with us tonight. jonathan, continued warnings of the dangerous implications of this syrian conflict. no ideas of how to resolve it. >> very few ideas, shep. about the only thing we have heard, in fact, warnings the idea of a cease-fire being imposed by bra herminey. that cease-fire to begin on friday seems to be a complete nonstarter on all sides. no other ideas coming from any world leaders and there is a school of thought among some experts that they are paralyzed over what to do about syria. because of confusion and in some cases fear over who and what might follow president

assad's regime. listen. >> well, i think if you were a country observing sierra and you thought the opposition with a no way capable of managing a transition or governors and you thought there was a vacuum of lawlessness you may decide let's make concessions and a you allow those guys to stay in power. >> the united nations food program announced this afternoon it is planning to feed something like 1.5 million syrians into the middle of next year. an indication of just how long the u.n. believes the civil war will drag on o. >> traveling today and didn't even realize this is now threatening frankly to bring down lebanon's government. >> yeah a lot of lebanese believe that the current government in beirut is too close to the syrian regime of bashar assad. they blame that regime, of course, for last week's devastating car bomb in beirut, a lot of protesters have been on the streets saying that this government must fall. it appears there may well be a new coalition government formed fairly soon.

u.s. officials seem to back that idea. listen. >> we in the united states are not going to prejudge the outcome of any moves to establish a new governing coalition. this is obviously a lebanese affair. and while we don't want a vacuum of legitimate political authority, we do support this process that is now underway to produce a new government that's responsive to the needs of the lebanese people. >> but as always, it won't be easy to fashion a new government from lebanon's many political factions. and while there is that vacuum lebanon likely to remain on the knife edge, shep? >> shepard: jonathan hunt, thank you. police firing tear gas and rubber bullets as they battle violent protesters in a story that tops our news around the world in 80 section. -- seconds. >> panama, rioters hurl stones at cops and set fire to blockades in the streets of a

major port city. the rally against a new law that let's the government sell off state-owned land near the panama canal. demonstrators claim it will end up hurting the local economy. a 10-year-old boy died last week in a riot over the same law. >> india. a massive fire ripped through several warehouses in the northwest. flames and plumes of thick smoke poured from the building's roof tops. officials evacuated students from a nearby school. at last word, nobody hurt. >> dominican republic, narcotics officers seized more than a ton of cocaine bound for holland in what they call their biggest drug best this year. he they raided residential areas around the capital city of santa doe mingo as well as a nearby tourist reasoning. -- region. authorities arrested seven suspected members of a drug gang. united kingdom the british grand prix of lawn mower

racing in southeast you think gland. competitors raced on a field in front of a pub. the grand prix followed days of rain. the soggy course had some racers calling the event mud, sweat, and gears. and that is a wrap on this fox trip around the world in 80 seconds. >> >> company behind monster energy drinks. more from the relatives of this 14-year-old girl who say she dis after drinking two cans of the stuff. plus, a young girl at home by herself when intruders broke in. so she picked up the phone and called 911. >> 911, how may i help you? >> i'm at my house. my mom is at the grocery store and someone got into my house. >> shepard: and it all ended. and why that girl says she was most worried about her dogs. that's coming up. [ owner ] i need to expand

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regulate the caffeine don't. these drinks are death traps for young developing girls like my daughter. doctors say in certain people the energy drinks are risky, listen. >> people that are we call slow metabolizers of caffeine tend to have more problems with cardiac or heart problems. heart racing, chest pain, things like that. so that if you are very sensitive to caffeine, you may have a problem with these energy drinks. >> the family of the 14-year-old girl is pushing to get these drinks regulated by

the f.d.a., shep. >> shepard: what else are we hearing from monster, trace? >> well, monster sent along its condolences of the family of the 14-year-old girl but said over the past 25 years the company has sold 8 billion cans of monster energy drinks and 70 companies and have never heard of a fatality and have never been sued. monster does not believe it's responsible for the girl's death saying and i'm quoting here neither the science nor the facts support the allegations that have been made. monster reiterates that its products are and have always been safe. monster sells about 10 different kinds of energy drinks. shep? >> shepard: trace, anything from the food and drug administration. >> the fda has not made a public statement yet. they made it very clear to us they are investigating all five of these deaths that might be linked to monster drinks. going on to say and i'm quoting here. adverse event reports serve as a signal to fda and does doo not prove causation between a product or ingredient and an

adverse event. in other words, there is no proof yet that monster is responsible for any of these deaths. shep? >> shepard: trace gallagher live in los angeles. thanks. what an ordeal for a 10-year-old girl after several people broke into her house while she was home alone. here is rick folbaum. >> peyton mock was home sick from school in washington. her mom was out getting her a sandwich about six miles away when someone came to their front door. [doorbell ringing] >> see called and said somebody was aging the doorbell. i said don't answer it. and she said well, they keep ringing. i said well, don't answer it. >> so then i check right there. and by the window. and i saw a teenager. >> and then she said they are in the house. she said mom i see them. i said hang up, call 911. >> that's exactly what she did. hiding in the pantry as burglars went through the house. >> 911, how may i help you?

>> i'm at my house. my mom is at the grocery store and someone got into my house. i don't know how they got. in i locked the door but my dogs are in the house. i'm afraid they are going to get killed. >> meantime her mom was racing home. >> my foot was down on the gas and i was -- i was blazing. i was passing cars left and right. >> the dispatcher told paityn to sneak out of her house. so she slipped through the garage and ran behind a tree. >> they can clearly see me. i'm trying to hide. >> okay. just keep trying to hide. you are doing good, okay? >> that's when paityn's mom arrived and ran toward the house. >> mommy, mommy. no, don't go in there. mommy, they are going -- my mom went inside. >> but at that very moment, sheriff's deputies rolled up at the scene. they caught one guy outside and everybody is okay. paityn. >> yes. >> you did a very good job. >> thank you. >> okay. you were very strong and you did a very good job, all

right? >> thank you. >> shepard: she did do a good job. that little girl's ordeal lasted about 14 minutes. investigators say they found drugs and stolen guns inside the house. and they are still looking for two more suspects. well, a day after an italian court inexplicably sentenced a group of scientists to prison because they failed to predict a deadly earthquake back in 2009. some of those sign -- scientist colleagues are quitting in protest. four top disaster experts say they simply cannot properly do their own work after yesterday's manslaughter convictions of six scientists and exgovernment officials. scientists around the world have denounced this trial saying it sets a dangerous precedent. they point out there is simply no reliable way to predict earthquakes and say it is ridiculous to hold experts accountable for natural disasters. a warning to voters in florida now after some received fake letters ton are ton telling

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>> shepard: we have all heard the knocks on those full body x-ray scanners at the airport. the transportation security administration is now removing them from some of the busiest airports in the country including jfk, lax and o'hare. they have been at security checkpoints since 2009. though it seems like 30,000 years. the scanners are controversial because they use low levels of radiation and because they create what looks like naked images of passengers.

the t.s.a. is to replace them with different scanners that don't emit any radiation and get this, they create cartoon like images of people. the feds say the move is designed to speed up security at checkpoints and really has nothing to do with the controversy. so they are moving these full body x-ray screeners to smaller airports. where they have more time for that awesome screening. somebody sending bogus letters to mostly republic voters in the battleground state of florida telling them they may not be eligible to vote. the officials say the letters are fake and designed to confuse voters. one of the letters reads and here is a quote: you must complete the attached voter eligibility form and return it to the supervisor of elections office within 15 days of receipt. failure to submit this form within 15 days will result in the removal of your name from the voter registration roles and you will will no longer be eligible to vote. of course, none of that is true. phil keating is in our south florida newsroom. these letters questioning folks' citizenship or what? >> shep, every single florida

voter who received one of these fake letters is, in fact, a u.s. citizen and all but one a registered republic. people like well john dean deangeles surprise at this letter. important in west virginia and lives in naples florida. to to him and many others in florida, the letters while they sure look real and official and that's where voter suppression could happen. >> my concern is that the obscenity ballot folks, elderly folks in florida that aren't as mobile can't get to the election office and they may be on the fence whether or not to vote in the election they are going to decide not to risk it. >> nationwide, voter intimidation is a felony, punishable by a large fine and up to it a year in jail, shep. what's the likelihood catching and whoever is sending these letters. >> it's really hard to say so far. the investigation really just

getting underway. all of these noncertified letters from mailed from a mail postal facility in seattle, washington which, of course, has nothing to do with the state of florida. no return address. they have been landing all over the state of florida in enough to 24 of 67 counties in this enormous battleground state with enormous battleground issues in the past. this clever letter is a first. >> any time anybody is trying to prevent somebody from voting. that's a serious issue. so, in our state, we have zero tolerance. we want people to vote. we want honest, fair elections. >> the state of florida now warning all florida voters ignore these fake letters, call them if you get one of these and early voting in florida begins on saturday. shep. >> shepard: phil keating live in south florida. phil, thanks. if you watched last night's presidential debate here on fox news, had you a lot of company. we got great news today and we thank you. nielsen ratings show the debate was the most watched program ever aired in 16 years

of fox news channel. the previous record a tie between last week's second presidential debate and the 2008 vice presidential debate between joe biden and sarah palin. among the continues of millions who tuned in to watched dewait actually here it was 11.4 million a few dozen guantanamo bay detainees were watching as well. the pentagon reports that two cell belongs of better behaved inmates were allowed to watch the debates on tv. those in another cellblock listened on the radio they toll us. candidates never got around to debating the future of gitmo, at least not last night. a hot pursuit down under when a kangaroo shows up at an airport. the chase to take down coming up as we make room for mr. bill o'reilly on this tuesday night.

>> shepard: the restrictions for carry on luggage are not as bad if you have your own pouch. the kangaroo did not receive a warm welcome at the melbourne

airport in australia. the thing turned up in a parking garage, hopped around a bit until the wildlife officer eventually nailed the creditor with a tranquilizer gun. the kangaroo had a short nap, the vet examined it. they plan to release it back in the wild. the poor thing was probably looking for buddy over at qantas. a shark attack near vandenberg air force base. number four health officials say the company linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak across the country shipped injectable steroids before it even got reports of sterility test apple unveiled new ipad mini designed to compete with amazon kindle fire. the dow plumb netted 233 today. the third worse day of the entire year. number one tonight, two weeks until election day, the candidates hitting key swing states including florida and nevada. and that's "the fox report's" top five.

and on this day in 1983, a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives into the u.s. military barracks in beirut, lebanon. they killed 241 marines, sailors, and soldiers. civil war had gripped lebanon for nearly a decade. the united states sent in hundreds of marines to help a multinational force quell the violence. but the situation continued to spiral out of control. and on that day an explosion equal to 18,000 pounds of dynamite destroyed the barracks buildings. president ronald reagan announced the end of the u.s. peace keeping role there. never identified the bombers. now deadly violence has returned to beirut where it was a dark and bloody morning 2 years ago today. and now you know the news for this tuesday, october the 23rd, 2012. i'm shepard smith. we're all back tomorrow, noon